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Judge in private talks with lawyers, but unclear what's next for Huntsville desegregation dispute

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Huntsville and the Justice Department agreed on a plan to build new schools, but negotiations fell apart over zone lines. The February groundbreaking for two of those new schools, Jemison-McNair Campus in northwest Huntsville. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- After weeks of silence, U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala ordered a private telephone conference with the lawyers on all sides of the ongoing desegregation dispute in Huntsville.

But that didn't clear up, at least not for the public, what happens next.

"We did have the conversation," said J.R. Brooks, attorney for Huntsville City Schools. "I decline to characterize it."

He called it a "status conference."

Haikala on Thursday ordered the lawyers to call her at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Brooks confirmed today that he was joined on the phone with two other legal representatives for Huntsville, as well as attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Hughes is the presiding judge in the 51-year-old civil rights lawsuit Hereford v. Huntsville Board of Education. That case led to 1970 desegregation order that ended dual schooling based on race in Huntsville. The court order is still active.

Huntsville more than a year ago began negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice over what it would take to end that order.

Both sides agreed and Huntsville last spring filed a plan to build to several new schools across the city. But negotiations stalled over zone lines. On Feb. 7, Huntsville filed for court approval of its plan. The Justice Department on Feb. 26 filed its opposition. Huntsville answered back on March 10.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a plaintiff in the 1963 suit, filed in support of Huntsville.

It remains unclear what the judge will do next.

Bob Harrison, the Madison County commissioner from north Huntsville, said he hopes the judge had taken into account a letter he'd written to the court in support of the Department of Justice.

"I'm anxious to find out what the conversation was about," said Harrison today.